if you don't give us what we want, we'll tank the economy. nice little economy you've got here. shame if shg were to happen to it. this needs to be taken off the table. >> ifill: let's assume we do go over the cliff as you suspect, where do we we land? where is the balance both sides are looking for? >> well, i mean in a way you could say a balanced outcome is that most of the bush tax cuts will survive. the fact of the matter is just a small piece of them is going to be taken away. there's a lot of things that the democrats want: extension of the payroll tax, expansion of unemployment been tits, more stimulus in general. that probably won't happen if we go over the cliff. it's not as if we're talking about a situation in which president obama gets everything he wants. i'm not sure. what we want is the least bad outcome for the u.s. economy. and the u.s. long-term fiscal outlook that we can get. i don't think that balance is what we're seeking. what we're seeking is is let's try not to mess up this situation even more than it already is mess up. >> ifill: do you agree with erski